Back to the plot !!

After chickens and darts, perhaps its time to get back to the plot. Its time to make a start on the lawn as I have nicknamed it. Its an embarassment to see, I still blame the slugs for eating all of my pumpkin seedlings - the plan was to fill this area with the pumpkins and as they were eaten by slugs late in the season I was at a loss as what to fill the space with. The strawberry bed (the great big grassy bit next to the path) is in serious need of attention, the pine needles from the christmas tree are waiting to go on them as mulch, they help to enhance the flavour and supposedly act as a weed suppressent - it obviously didn't work last year !!
I want clear this section as this is where I intend to plant the potatoes, I have been thinking about how to take care of them this year, I am considering planting the potatoes in shallow trenchs and when the foliage comes through I will cover the potato patch with weed suppressent fabric and have small holes for the foliage. I was wondering if this would be a way of arresting the growth of the weeds and helping the potatoes.

As I thought the blue tarpaulin did not fully block out the light, so when I had a sneaky peep, the couch was there laughing at me. So for the moment I thought as the couch comes off the uncovered part of the plot I will throw it on top of the tarpaulin and this may omit the light. The soil on the plot quite clayey so when I dig up a chunk of couch a few pounds of earth come with it. I intend to try and wash off the earth before throwing the couch in the site skip - I do not trust couch to ever to be dead enough to compost.